Beginnings
by kbeto
Summary: "Beginning [bɪˈgɪnɪŋ] noun. The origin of something, or the place, time, or way in which something started. Often plural." Everything in life has a beginning, even when you don't actually plan on one. It's Tom's first day at his new job, what does destiny have in the store for him? Flones, rated T, language, inappropriate humour, etc. Table #1, entry #8.


_Disclaimer: Level of ownership over any of this is zero. Let's have some fun and drown in OTP feels, ok?_

_A/N: In all honesty, I think this one was the hardest to write, because I didn't have much to work upon (and the word 'beginnings' is just too much... loose to make something substantial). Anyway, this one makes it 4 down and more 6 to complete my first table! Hopefully, I'll complete this one and do the same to the other 10 (meaning I should be finished in 10 years or so). :P_

_Thanks to everyone reading my stuff and special thanks for those who actually take their time to send some feedback. It's much appreciated! :D _

Beginnings

The sound of a black alarm clock that resembled Mickey Mouse's face echoed through the room to wake its owner up, but Tom had been up for the past 15 minutes, unable to keep excitement, anxiety and thrill off his system. Today's an important day in his life and he surely didn't want to arrive late at his first day on his new job.

Lady luck had finally blessed him, and the blond was ready to go work for a big company not far away from his flat – meaning he could go back and forth by foot and keep himself relatively healthy, which is important when you work all day sitting in front of a computer screen –, the same one his mate Dougie has been working for. It was actually Dougie that helped Tom snatch this golden opportunity, as the previous co-worker he had moved to Japan, leaving his team short-handed.

"That's it, Tom. Believe in yourself and try to make a good first impression," he said one last time to his reflection in the mirror, turning on his heels to silence the loud bell ringing from his bedside table, at last. "Beginnings are always important!"

Closing the door to his room, he walked down the hall to serve himself a generous breakfast to give him the energy necessary to endure a long day of requests from clueless users that usually can get their problems solved with a simple reboot, but that's also part of the fun, as every other team he had worked with had some of the best stories you could imagine.

_Hope you have a welcoming party for me. :P_

It didn't take too long to get a reply to the text sent to Dougie, and Tom just shook his head, reading the ever cheeky reply from his friend. The best thing about being friends with Dougie was his sense of humour. It was completely wrong and inappropriate, but you eventually got used to it, not to mention that his innocent face helped him get away with pretty much _anything_ he said.

_They'll deliver a cake with hot twin strippers inside but I'm not supposed to tell you that. ;)_

Tom finished his meal and gathered his belongings, before heading for the door. Bag on back and iPod plugged to his ears, he strolled down the familiar street that would eventually take him to his first day as Dougie's co-worker. For a minute – just a instant, really – he wished the other boy was really kidding about the cake with strippers, because, well, you're _never_ too sure with Dougie.

~#~

"Hello, I'm Thomas Fletcher, new to the support team," he offered a smile to a girl behind a stone polished counter. "I reckon I need some help."

"Hello, Thomas! I'm Michelle," the girl with dark hair to her shoulders smiled amicably. "I've been notified of your arrival, welcome to Abbey & Wembley."

Michelle proved to be very efficient in her work, and within minutes she gave Tom all information he could possibly need on his first day, as well as giving him tips of where to eat lunch based on how much one was willing to spend on food.

"Oh, looks like he's already here," she said, noticing a young man walking towards them. "He's the one that will show you things around, I assure you are in good hands."

"I doubt that, but thanks, Michelle," Tom chuckled, waving a goodbye and walking over to hug Dougie.

"How I missed you!" Dougie all but tackled Tom, squeezing the taller blond tight.

"Last time you saw me was two days ago, Dougs," Tom laughed into their embrace, partially embarrassed about such public display of affection – he knew people were obviously watching them –, though he didn't expect any less from Dougie.

"Yeah, but I love you so much, I can hardly spend a day away from you!"

"I'm _not_ buying you lunch, Dougie."

"It didn't really work, uh?"

"Not when I've known you for so long, no," Tom chuckled. They then started walking towards a elevator that would take them to their respective department, both smiling like kids.

~#~

"Anything else I need to know?"

"Not that you _need_ to know, but there's this guy from HRM who's always having some trouble, and sometimes I swear he's checking me out–"

"You were right about the part where I _didn't_ need to know about that," Tom frowned, dodging a pen chucked at him. "But if you want, we can talk about your mysterious guy later," he winked to let Dougie know he was just pulling his leg.

"Like I need you to make fun of feelings–"

The telephone rang. It was the one on Tom's desk and he immediately looked at Dougie, who just shrugged in response and muttered a 'good luck'. Taking a deep breath, Tom put the phone to his ear, ready to answer, though he was beaten to it by a loud, thick accent that rang from the receiver end.

"_Do I have to sleep with you to get this keyboard fixed or wha'?"_ the voice guffawed, a laugh so contagious that Tom would have joined in, if a stranger hadn't just offered to sleep with him on his first day at work and he had absolutely no idea who was speaking to him.

"Hello, Thomas speaking," he finally managed to say something, eyes scanning for Dougie's, getting the other blond also worried.

"_Oh."_ There was a pause for some time, and Tom could hear his anonymous caller yell something to a 'Harry'. _"I'm so sorry, I forgot tha' Bradley was supposed to leave. I thought it was him!"_

"That's okay, I thought you wouldn't be volunteering to sleep with some random guy," Tom laughed a bit, now feeling more at ease than they first started talking.

"_Do you reckon ya could help me? My keyboard went bonkers."_

"Sure, erm..."

"_Daniel, from the HRM."_

"Well, Daniel, I'll be there as soon as I can," he took note of which floor to go and hang up. Dougie already had that smirk on his face that only meant dirty thoughts running through his mind, eyeing Tom with an arched eyebrow.

"Getting laid on your first day? Boy, you're sure fast!"

"I would try to explain things properly, but that wouldn't make your twisted thoughts go away, so I'll leave it at that and save myself the effort," he left the room they were located in, entering the elevator followed by Dougie's hysterical laughter.

The task was fairly easy, and in no more than 10 minutes Tom was on the designated floor to meet 'Daniel from the HRM' and possibly give him a solution to his problem. It would have been wise of him to just bring a new keyboard along, but experience showed him that most of the time it was a problem with software rather than hardware. Plus, it would take time to fill all the papers needed.

"_Now I just need to find him,"_ he thought.

Tom looked up to a sign hanging from ceiling with directions, memorising the course he should take. On his way there, though, he heard a familiar laugh – loud and infectious – and approached a guy with curly hair drinking something that seemed to be coffee.

"Sorry to interrupt– are you Daniel from HRM?"

"Why, yeah," the boy turned to face Tom. His eyes were so blue that anyone could be mesmerised just by looking at them, and Tom was no exception. Also, Daniel's smile was so clear and wide, it was like contemplating a sunny day. "Can I help ya, mate?"

"I'm here to fix your keyboard," Tom suddenly came back to reality, blinking in embarrassment for just staring for so long without uttering a single word. "I'm Thomas."

"You're my tech angel!" The brunet exclaimed, throwing his cup at the bin and taking Tom's hand into his own larger ones and shaking profusely. "I'm glad you came so fast!"

~#~

It did turn out that Danny's – _"I already offered to sleep with you, I think we can drop the formalities,"_ he had said – problem was pretty simple to solve, just a misconfiguration on the default language layout for his keyboard. And since Tom was already at it, he also cleaned the peripheral with his reliable USB powered hand-held vacuum cleaner, to which Danny was most grateful.

"And it's done," Tom clapped snapped his fingers together, stuffing the tiny device back into his pocket.

"I knew you could save me; I'm only good at dealing with people," Danny laughed again, and this time Tom joined him in it.

"I can see that," the blond breathed, taking in the splendour of such a hearty laugh.

"What?"

"What what?"

"So, how's your first day so far?" Danny plopped back on his chair, watching Tom from behind his desk. They had a bit of chat whilst Tom did his magic, sure, but that wasn't enough to get to know each other more, and Tom seemed like a cool lad.

"I'm working with my best friend and a random stranger already tried to bed me, so I think it could be worse."

Danny laughed once more, and Tom's heart swelled at the fact he was the reason for such beautiful laugh fill his ears again. "To make up to that I'll treat you to lunch, how's tha'?"

"I'm truly grateful, but–"

"He never takes 'no' for an answer," a brunet dropped a ream-sized pile of papers on Danny's desk. "You should invite your friend, as well."

"Tom, this guy that knows nothing about private conversations is Harold. Harry, this is Thomas."

"Call me Harry, if I can call you Tom," he shook hands with Tom, giving him a brief smile. They exchanged a few more words before Tom had finally to go back, waving his new acquaintances goodbye.

~#~

The news of Tom _"scoring a double date with the hunks from the HRM"_ were received with enthusiasm by Dougie. Nothing that Tom said would change the blue-eyed boy's mindset, thus he decided to just leave his friend to his own perverted fantasies and focus on his own work.

Everyone he had met on Abbey & Wembley seemed to be nice and polite, making it easier to go up and down in such a tall building with a smile in place. Still, no one was near enough as shiny and cheerful as Danny, and that thought made Tom wonder if he wasn't subconsciously buying Dougie's idea of 'date'. Not that he would have a problem with it – who wouldn't want to go out with someone like Danny? –, but dating people at workplace would forever be... tricky.

"Ready, Tommy?" An eager Dougie asked from the door, enthusiasm painfully evident in his voice.

"Could you at least _try_ to hide your excitement?" Tom rolled his eyes, stuffing his bag back in his locker.

"Is it showing?" Dougie fumbled with the front of his trousers, hurriedly.

"I swear that I already regret getting out of bed today."

~#~

Surprisingly enough, Harry and Danny were already waiting for them at the lobby, Danny trying to catch Tom's attention, waving his arm high in the air; Harry leaning against one of the big stone pillars by the door, arms folded over his chest and eyes closed. Tom gave Dougie a last look that could be read as _"you better behave or so help me" _and made his way to the brunet duo.

"Are we late? I thought we had a few minutes spare."

"No, we just got here," Danny smiled. "It wouldn't be nice to leave you here hanging, anyway."

"Hi, Douglas," Harry was now standing by Danny's side, extending his hand to the smaller blond.

"Hello, Harold," he replied bashfully.

"I think we're ready to go," Tom cleared his throat, pointing to the double glass doors. It really seemed like Dougie fancied Harry; he didn't even remember the last time he saw his mate act that shy around someone. Mainly because 'shy' and 'Dougie' almost never go in the same sentence.

Soon the foursome was outside, heading to a small restaurant with _"the nicest food you could get without paying its weight in gold"_, as Danny had put it. Tom and Danny leading the way talking like they knew each other for the longest time, whilst Dougie and Harry followed close behind, still trying to figure out the ropes of how to make proper conversation without profusely flushing.

~#~

"_Reckon you could give me a hand after we're done here?"_

"_Sure, mate. Why not?"_

Had Tom known that those few words would get him in so much trouble, he would have tried a way to let Danny down easy and they wouldn't be in such an awkward situation right now. A mighty storm mercilessly washed over the city, making people take shelter on wherever they could. The ones lucky enough to already find themselves at their own homes were told to just call it a day, whilst the less fortunate ones were advised to stay wherever they were, even if it meant sleeping at work.

The water pelting against the window seem to distract Tom well enough that he didn't heard when Danny entered the room with a pyjama bottom and an old top of his in hand. He called out to the blond a few times, but as his efforts seemed useless, he tried a more tactile approach.

"Tom, are you okay?" he shook the other boy's shoulder. "I'm sorry that you can't go home, it's my fault you're not at your own bed right now." Danny apologised earnestly, and Tom could see those blue eyes wrecked with guilt, as he turned to face him.

"Don't worry! Knowing myself, I would probably be stuck in a little shop buying food or something," he let out a little laugh, thinking of such a ridiculous scene. "At least, I won't have to worry about making small talk with the cashier through the night."

"Go take a shower, then. I'll make dinner for us," he chucked the clothes he held at Tom's face, running out the room, laughing audibly.

"Don't think it's over, Jones! I'll get you back!" Tom's words filled the house, just on cue to a lightning on the background lit the room, almost giving it a serious tone, wasn't for his laugh and Danny's being an indicative of how empty his threat sounded.

~#~

The sound of metal clinging awoke Tom in the middle of the night, making him set upright, trying to figure out where the sound came from. First he brushed it off as being half-asleep, but after it happened twice and in regular time, he decided it would be worth investigate.

"_Could it be that someone is trying to break in?"_ The thought of having some random psycho pointing a gun to him and looting Danny's flat made beads of cold sweat appear on Tom's forehead. The brunet was sleeping upstairs and there was no guarantee that he would hear Tom scream for help, if the bit _"I sleep like a rock"_ bit was really true.

Mustering a courage that he didn't even knew he had in himself, Tom tiptoed his way from his 'bed' – namely Danny's old sofa bed that made a weird noise whenever you moved around on it – to the front door, using his phone to light the way. The closer he got, the more audible the noise became, now a bit more hurried as if the person making them got frustrated about something.

"I'm just going to check and then call the police," he breathed, trying to remain calm and poking his head from behind the wall to meet the burglar. "You?"

A mix of relief and confusion could be seen on Tom's expression. In front of him was a Danny clad in black boxers, haphazardly fumbling with the door chain and clearly _asleep_. _"He sleepwalks?" _

Tom walked over to make sure Danny was sleeping and slowly guided the boy back to the stairs to get him back to his own bed. Everybody knows you shouldn't walk a sleepwalker, so all that was left to Tom was gently return his colleague to a place where he could sleep properly.

It would have worked, if Danny hadn't suddenly taken a detour to the living room and make himself comfortable where Tom had been sleeping for the night. "For fuck's sake! Are you shitting me?" He clamped his mouth upon realising how loud it came out and scooted over to check if Danny was still sleeping.

With nothing more he could do, Tom took the opposite side of the bed and enveloped both with a blanket. He rolled on his side to face away from Danny and muttered a quick 'good night', to which he knew wouldn't receive a response. Except that five minutes or so in his sleep, Danny rolled around and grabbed him by the waist burying his face on Tom's neck in a very intimate and cuddly way.

"Tell me you're just fucking around and you're awake. Please!" Except for the sound of light snoring, there was no sign that his plea was acknowledged. "I swear that I'll murder you in the morning," he sighed, closing his eyes and trying to sleep, as well.

~#~

As if Tom had actually dared destiny to make things even worse, the next morning started in a very dreadful way. He and Danny awoke all snuggled up on each other, and inexplicably one of Danny's hand was cupping his bum inside the borrowed pyjama bottom he was wearing. Danny awoke and pushed Tom off bed – startled and confused – and almost broke a teeth when he planted his face on the floor, his foot tangled on the blanket that was over them.

Tom explained the situation of the previous night, but nothing he said made the uncomfortable feeling go away, not to mention they would go to work together (and Danny didn't live as close as Tom to the colossal Abbey & Wembley building). They ate breakfast in silence, until Tom, tired of that foul mood, spoke first.

"Look, you're a sleepwalker, I get it. There's no reason to be so upset or embarrassed," Tom tried a smile, carefully studying Danny's features. "We can always laugh it off, right? Now that you slept with me, I _have_ to fix your computer!"

Danny eyes rose from his plate to look Tom in the face, for the first time since the morning started. He looked serious and a hint of melancholy could be sensed, as the smile that never left his face was nowhere to be found.

"You don't understand– I actually liked it," he finally said, dropping his eyes back to his meal. "Just don't think I wanted to take advantage of you or something..."

"Are you serious?" Tom's mouth stood open in astonishment, watching a black mop of hair nod curtly. "To be quite honest, it was nice, indeed. Until you groped me, that is," the blond sighed. "But since I already had many beginnings this week, I guess we could try and see what happens."

"Really?" Danny's freckled face lit up with a smile.

"I'm talking about a date, you pervert! Keep your hands to yourself," Tom stuck his tongue out.

"We could make it double, though? Harry needs some _serious_ help to confess to Dougie."

"And we need to get them off our backs," Tom extended his hand over the table and Danny shook it, sealing their agreement.

Danny, who had other plans in mind, got up from his seat and walked over to Tom's side. "This is how we seal a deal," he lowered his head, holding Tom's chin in place as he kissed his lips with a lingering, chaste kiss. "Now we can say it's 'sealed with a kiss'."

"That was so cheesy, Daniel," Tom chuckled. "But I'll give you some points for the attempt," he pulled Danny back down for another kiss.

~#~

"Dan?" Harry asked, just when he was about to shove a fork loaded with salad in his mouth.

"What, Harry?"

"Why is Tom wearing that shirt I gave you on your birthday?"

"Shit!" Tom mouthed, hearing Dougie make some jokes about 'real commitment to work' and a few others full of innuendos about _hardware_ and the like. It really seemed like the beginning of a new episode for all of them.

~Fin~


End file.
